>> Coming up on "Need to Know."
local students are not just victims of high-tech crime and abuse, there are becoming offenders as well.
We examine a major new study on what children and teenagers are doing in cyberspace.
Also, the making of onstage, the X X. I.'s local music program -- WXXI's local music program debuting.
[CAPTIONING MADE POSSIBLE BY WXXI]
>> Thanks for joining us, I'm Julie Philipp.
Surfing, instant messaging, text messaging, technology is open at the old New World, one that eight children and teenagers seem better equipped for than their parents and grandparents.
These young people are boldly exploring this world without much adult supervision or guidance.
On this edition we will look at what they are doing out there.
The results of a recent survey of 13,000.
Students are about to be released nationally.
The study was conducted by Dr. Samuel McQuade, Research care for the Rochester Regional cyber safety initiatives.
He joins us in studio.
Thanks for doing as.
>> My pleasure.
>> Tell me about the initiative, what started it and who is involved?
>> The Rochester Regional cyber safety initiative, which people can learn about AD www.ricfi.org. Is a partnership between the Rochester Institute technology in 20 school districts and three prominent national organizations, including the National Center for Missing and exploited Children, the FBI is public education program, and the Information Systems Security association.
What we're doing here in Rochester is creating awareness and the need for awareness about education pertaining to information security, Internet safety, and computer ethics, by and among our kids, as well as teachers and parents.
>> Where did this initiative come from?
It is coming from influential members.
>> Several years ago, I was the computer program manager for the National Institute of Justice which is the research and development arm for the U.S. Department of justice.
My job was to understand the of all the nature and extent of computer crimes in all its forms in our society.
In the 1990's I began to realize there was an important need for the United States to start ramping up cyber safety and ethics education, especially for K-12 students.
After all, everyone deserves to be safe on line.
All of our organizations throughout society, to the extent that they rely on computers, also need employees who are capable and responsible in using the myriad of forms of computers and other devices we depend on.
So, after a few years of serving in Washington, D.C. in various capacities, I found myself working at R I T.
This was with the Department of Criminal Justice initially and I began doing my own research because the federal government was not sponsoring any research in this area.
What I found through a study of students and also another school nearby is that we were missing in on this one.
The problem of cyber-bending and the victimization by and among young people in our society was far worse than we imagined.
In fact, it has been evolving for over 50 years, progressively as computers have evolved in our society.
>> Tell me about the survey, how it was conducted, what you are looking for.
>> In 2004, it showed that college students were victims of many forms of cyber-offending.
That they also participated in this kind of illicit activity.
I began wondering, I wonder what is going on in high school and junior high?
With the INS -- assistance of a supervisor -- Superintendent, I was able to speak to the superintendent Association in 2006.
They gave me 15 minutes to present my research based on college students at these two colleges, and I said I would like the opportunity to survey some of their students.
Their general reaction was two fold.
First they said, we want you to serve our students but you are going to go down to kindergarten.
You cannot believe what we are experiencing in our buildings.
>> Did they give you an example?
>> They did, and the kind of things they were experiencing were a combination of harassment and perhaps that their students were experiencing to bomb threats, communicated by e-mail, to all sorts of disruptive conduct.
And they were especially concerned about the types of activities that could begin and be carried out through home computers and spill over into their real lives of students in the classrooms and on school properties.
>> So they wanted to do K-12.
What was the other request?
>> They said they knew what the research was going to show and it would be worse than they imagines.
If that turned out to be the case, do not voice this on education.
This is a societal problem.
It is bigger than the schools.
We have to have parents, employers involved.
It was on that basis that I started reaching out to prominent organizations in our country, the FBI, issa, along with the National Center for Missing and exploited children.
The initiative has evolved over the past 18 months in what many have described as an effort more aggressive than they start up business.
What we have been able to accomplish is absolutely incredible.
>> You have surveys geared toward age groups beginning in kindergarten all the way to seniors.
What were some of the more significant findings?
>> We completed what we call our pilot survey of five school districts in May and June of this year.
The study involved the Diocese of Rochester, Britain School District, N.Y., New Jersey, an airport.
It resulted in 13,773 students along with hundreds of parents and student responses.
That is unique and powerful about our survey design.
We are simultaneously asking questions of the children of all ages in primary and secondary schools along with their parents and teachers such that we can undertake longitudinal research over time, as well as household analysis to understand what is taking place in home computer settings.
The results are stunning.
First, beginning in kindergarten, kids are actively using their home computers.
More than half of kids use their home computers or other electronic devices to get online.
They do this to play games, to chat, research, even at this age.
When they do, more than half experienced things that make them feel uncomfortable.
Disturbingly, --
>> Let me stop you there.
What do you mean by things that make them uncomfortable?
>> It could range from pictures of violent to sexuality, to other things they do not understand or comprehend.
>> Sunday are clicking on something and they are getting brought to another website.
>> It may be on their own or maybe the result of pop up advertisement, Spam, different kinds of advertisement that, in their minds, appear for some it -- explicit reason.
In any event, they are experiencing them.
When they do, most of them do not report it to a grown-up.
Even at this age, they are using these devices, getting on line, experiencing a variety of inappropriate content for their age, and are not -- reporting it to grown-ups.
>> Around fourth and sixth grade, it is critical time, and there is change for youth.
>> Yes.
Beginning in the fourth grade, our data shows the number of youthful offenders exceeds the number of victims.
They themselves have learned to use this technology in inappropriate ways to abuse or cause harm, and in some cases, commit crimes.
>> When you think of an offender, if you think of a sexual predator on line.
>> This is the myth that has been perpetuated through our legislative actions in society as well as by the media.
When I say Smith, what I am trying to say is certainly, online sex crimes are an important issue, something we need to continue to address.
But the notion that the math -- a vast majority of high-tech crime that is experienced by our youth pertains to adult sexual predators is just wrong.
That constitutes a small piece of the March larger pie involving such activities as hacking into computers, cracking passwords, illegal downloading of the media in violation of state and federal copyright laws.
We also have evidence of using computers and other devices to illegally download -- download prescriptions for drugs or to purchase illegal drugs.
We also have evidence of credit card fraud, and when that is carried out over a long period of time --
>> Stealing mom and dad's credit card?
>> Often unauthorized use or someone else's credit card number that they have acquired.
That is carried out over a long period of time, it begins to constitute identity theft.
All of these things, unfortunately, are beginning to happen in the fourth grade and fifth and sixth grade.
By the time they get into middle school, they are experiencing the full range of online forms of crime as both victims and offenders.
This is deeply disturbing.
>> Where are the parents, what are they supposed to do?
>> Many of the parents are trying to do the best they can with what they have to work with.
The problem is, people like myself did not grow up with computers, often find ourselves at a technological disadvantage to even understand the tools and Internet as a system, much less what they can do about it.
Unfortunately, they will typically rely on purchasing software, blocking, filtering systems.
Our data shows by the fourth grade, 8% of kids on an annual basis learn to defeat those systems.
Once that is discovered and posted on line, then the kids are readily available to understand how to defeat these kinds of systems put on their home computers.
>> Were you able to determine if they knew that this was wrong or that this is just something that they do?
>> In our prior studies with college students, we explicitly examined their awareness as to the legality of their activities.
Because we are asking so many questions of a different variety in this most recent survey of the K-12 students, we did not ask them whether they committed crimes in those terms.
You never want to ask a question that way.
>> Sorry to interrupt.
The next step?
>> We will be working with our partners and global sponsorship.
We have received support from other corporations, including Time Warner.
>> To start training?
>> And to continue research so that we can make a difference in the lives of students, parents, and teachers.
>> Thank you, Dr. Samuel McQuade.
Now we turn our focus to the payola payoff.
That is when Eliot Spitzer was the York's attorney general.
He reached major settlements for recording -- with recording companies that were paying for play on meditations.
The companies were fined millions of dollars and that money has been turned into grants to support -- education and appreciation.
One of the priorities is to expose New Yorkers to music that does not typically reach a wide audience.
Our public broadcasting council is among the recipients of the first round of grant funding.
That is how onstage King to be.
It is a new program debuting that showcases regional musicians.
Ram JESMER takes a look at them making up on stage during this edition of "Arts Friday" on "Need to Know."
>> We have the funding from the musical and the idea was to highlight, showcase New York State bands, musical talents.
Our idea was to have this be almost a rehearsal jam session, if you will.
¶
>> The band is there, they get to do their thing.
We get to talk to them a little bit.
And that is eight, we try to keep it simple.
>> The glue that holds it all together.
They play, I ask questions, and I try to tie in questions with their past and present and their performance, all together as a little package.
It is a pleasure to have you here.
This band has a 17-year history.
>> Yes, we started nearby in Samuel Hall.
>> I have listened to everything I can get my hands on.
I listen to what they play.
I go online, go to the reduced, look at their MySpace page, whatever material they give us.
I like to listen to the music while I am reading this and listen to it again as I am making my questions.
So that I can get a sense of being in the place with the band as it happens.
>> Tell us about the song.
>> We have production meetings in we walk them thru it.
There is a template, if you will, so that every show we shoot in the studio is virtually the same.
>> Welcome to "on stage" where you will meet great local artists.
>> In one song there is an interview segment.
A small set where we tell them we like that to be between a 11 minutes and 12 minutes.
Depending on the band, it could be one song, five songs.
As long as it adds up to that time frame.
And then there is an interview segment and another small said.
At the end Julia -- we time it out so that we come to her and she thinks them -- this is WXXI.
This is a radio and television project.
And then we go back to the band for one last song and we play that however long we need to reach our time.
After that, it is going with the flow.
I try to tell the camera people to have fun with it, get into the music, depending on whether a is a slow song or a fast song.
Really, it is all without having fun.
>> The toughest part is also the best part.
Every show is different.
The field is very different when you come here.
Sometimes a is edgy.
Sometimes it is comfortable.
The show is going to be different, the music is going to be different.
One of the things that I have had to learn to do quickly is to gauge what is happening with each group, who they are and what they are, it changes.
>> These bands loved it.
We are talking about a band and it -- individuals that do not get the chance to be on television.
When you get the chance to be on radio ads -- also.
We built together the production plan on radio and television as well as on the development side.
There is a pre-show gathering where they can watch what they have just done.
The project from A-Z has just worked.
>> The biggest surprise was the support from the white devils.
You might expect that for some bands, but there was this overflowing screaming audience, and it was amazing.
[APPLAUSE]
>> The interaction between the audience and band has been terrific.
The audience is really into it.
Maybe I thought we would have been sitting on their hands, but it was not like that.
It helped me energy.
>> We build into the program interviews with the band, but ultimately it is just them.
That is to we want to see.
-- who we want to see.
>> That program debuts on Sunday evening at 7:00 on WXXI television beginning September 16.
For more information, go to wxxi.org/onstage.
Now it is time for the business section with the Democrat and Chronicle.
>> Matt Daneman is a business reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle and joins us for a look at the week's top business stories.
Starting with Excellus BCBS, going after fraud.
How big of a problem is that?
>> They have their own internal fraud division that they say stop $4 million worth of fraud.
It is not an insubstantial problem.
What they are doing is they have contracted with IBM for this data-mining service and now they will be going after this, pharmaceutical fraud, that sort of thing.
Maybe crack down on this more.
>> Looking for inconsistencies and red flags.
Another big story, consumer confidence is falling.
>> Siena College does a survey of New York attitude.
A lot of the economy is based on psychology.
Their surveys found consumer confidence for August was the lowest point it was for the entire year.
And that the buying plans for New Yorkers, the lowest point in five years.
Things do not look great right now.
>> Have any idea why?
The man I would imagine a ball out from the housing market slump, stock-market volatility.
Credit is harder to get.
That is making people put off a big purchase.
>> The timing before the holidays, is that a concern?
>> It would depend on how and bake it is.
We have back-to-school shopping and such, but this is not usually a huge consumer time of the year as opposed to holiday season.
If we start to see a pattern and its peaks in October, we may be seeing an issue.
>> There is also a new grocery store in the city of Rochester.
>> In 2008, Wegmans will be your replaced -- will be replaced by another one.
We are going to bring grocery shopping back to that corner of the city.
That grocery chain, their claim to fame, things are cheap and they do things to the bone.
For example, you bring in your own grocery bags or buy them there and back your groceries themselves -- yourself.
>> This came fairly quickly.
Was Wegmans part of the deal in getting them to tell the story?
>> They donated the land to the city.
>> So the city solicited stores?
>> They played a role in that they sold the property to a developer who then brought in the other grocery store.
All of these parts played a role in getting this in.
>> Finally, North America's biggest printing Expo is underway.
>> Next week in Chicago.
If you are the people who care about printing in this community, this is an annual thing.
The biggest one in North America.
Companies around the world show off their products and try to make sales.
Large and small companies will be there.
>> And they have new stuff, but nothing earth-shattering?
>> If you are inside one of those companies, you may claim that all of your products are earth-shattering.
>> We are out of time.
But thank you.
That does it for this edition of "Need to Know."
I in Julie Philipp.
I was you next week at a special time, at 930 P M, due to an extended edition of now.
Have a great week.